monstermetal

I dont quite get the check valve thing? There are checks for the compressor that need to be there but you shouldn't be able to see them from outside the hammer... on the old style hammers they where down inside the compressor head... The ram side to side movement should not be an issue to adjust out with the bronze wedge, if all the adjustment is used up just put a small shim behind it and your back in biz... The oil adjustment valve on all of them is junk.... I drilled and tapped the factory oil check and fitted a proper 1/4 needle valve and now have a very controllable oil system.... as far as the sticking ram I would pull the head off the ram cylinder and make sure there is no obstructions (worn ridge, broken ring, something) pull or push the ram up and down full stroke and see if physically it will go through the motions... if it will then you either got a valve or air issue.... simplest air issue to check is a slipping belt... about 20% of all Say Mak problems and be traced back to a slipping or oily belt... Make sure all the hoses are sound and the clamps tight... If you get that far and still got issues it gets a bit more complicated....

.... Just go over to the neighbors house and tell them you give up... they win, There has been a biker gang who has been hounding you for some time to take over your lease for a a club house anyway after they lost there last place when the DEA did a meth lab raid.....

Well Danger..... Her name shall be Kaiju........ It is Japanese for "strange beast" but is often translated to English simply as "monster"

Yeah I was thinking about using something like 8" 1/2" wall tube and 4" X 5/8 angle... you would almost have a box around the whole tube but not quite because of the 3/8" or so bronze bearing strips in the angle ... the only real advantage I can see is by implementing a way to "squeeze" the angle you could effectively take up slop in the guide system... my thought is a couple of inch wide strips on both sides of the leg would work nicely, give you lots of guide area... I think I would make the guides like 12-16" long... you could even have cut away the guide on the front and have the ram park up inside... that way you would have more tool clearance but still have the guides down a bit closer to the work...

Like I said, I dont think as far as a guide system its the end all be all, just that it would be very simple to build, seems like it would be pretty solid and would require no machining

I dont see the appeal of a stacked plate anvil? I mean the steel is almost the same cost per pound and you have all the extra work to do to cut it and assemble it to have something that is not quite as good? I mean if you had the plate and wanted to burn it up or found a deal on some plate I could understand... but if your buying material why not just buy a solid billet..... Im not against it, just seems like a lot of extra work for no real reason if your buying the steel anyway...

I just had a idea for a guide system.... use a square solid (or tube I guess) and a pair of angle iron guides that ran on two corners with some strips of brass riveted in... you could use tie bolts front and back to adjust for wear.... If you used a tube you could put the cylinder inside and have long guides, lots of support area.... Maybe not a perfect set up but would be very easy to construct with no machining.... The head would be on the diamond to the frame... make sense? anyone ever seen or done anything like it?

Yeah, your question is to vague to really give a good answer... I paid $400 for what turned out to be a perfect complete little giant site unseen.... I paid $1650 for a 50lb little giant just seeing pictures and it turned out if I had seen it first I wouldn't probably have paid $500

It depends on how much is there, what the condition is of whats there... Its worth anything from a couple hundred bucks to a couple of grand (you say a frame, but I assume its not a completely stripped frame casting)

I would rather not post the price but if you want to call or email I'm happy to talk about it. I figure if Ken wants you to contact him for info I shouldn't make it public, I'll say I think it's very reasonable. I dont think I could build it for what he is asking even if I did know how..

It's not about doing something I currently can't. If that was the criteria I don't think I can utilize 10% of the capability I currently have. It is much about interest in machines and fabrication of the hammer. I just believe all geetaur amplifier should go to 11 someone should be trying to figure out how to make them go to 12. Fact there's a pretty good chance that what it is going to change a dozen times before it gets built, if it Ever gets built....

The last thing I want is a drop hammer Sam.... What I want is all about control.. I want to be able to tap tap tap with a very large weight or give it a single wollop.... The more I think about it the more I think doing something with the 300lb Chambersburg is really the long term answer..

I am still going to build this hammer, maybe I'll end up building it more like a conventional hammer though just so I can sell it at some point..

Down loaded the deal for my phone. At 4 feet it says the 3b idles at about 98-100 db and when hitting has a high of 110. With the hammer off the background noise in the shop is 55-65

Well yes kind of..... But I want something that I can put big stuff in and hit it hard... The KA has good control for light-ish blows but it really doesn't hit that hard.... It would do everything a "normal" blacksmith would want to do... however I am not that guy I guess..... I want something that generates something like a 800-1000 foot pound blow, Of course if I had a Massey clear space hammer all of this would be pointless.... Maybe when the 4B is up and running I can do some of that kind of work under it....


I dont know what I am doing John.....let alone why. I thought about trying to revamp the KA 150 to work more like what I want but really it works so well as it is for some things I hate to mess with it....

I dont understand why you cant copy and past in this new format but its frustrating since I already wrote what I wanted to say and have to type it all over again.... Ugg..


Anyway

I am going to build a strange hammer... I dont have any use of another general forging hammer, I got those bases well covered. What I do want is a really powerful and controllable striking hammer, it will only be used with hand held or spring swage type tooling or dies.... So for a few days I have been thinking about what kind of guide I need, how I am going to put the frame together and it really struck me today that I dont need much of a guide, Die alinement is not an issue, heck I dont think I'll even have "dies" in the conventional sense ... I think i'll have a 6-7" round slug of 4340 that I will use as the top "die" and I have a 4" thick by 15" square chunk of A588 that will serve as the top of the anvil "die".... I have a pair of 8" square bars 32" long that will go side by side for the anvil and a 4" base plate so I will have a anvil weight of around 2000 pounds.... I am thinking for a ram I just need a chunk of like 4" chrome shaft that will slide up and down in a long derilin or nylon bushing... a tab at the top will go to a linkage that has the cylinder attached and the linkage will keep it from rotating much, and if it turns just a bit I cant see that it matters? I think the ram will be 150-200 pounds.... Thoughts?
I talked to ken who built the steam hammer linkage system yesterday and am going to buy his controls.... It seems to have the kind of control I want and I dont think I can mess around and build anything close to as good, especially for what he wants for the kit...

I know this is not typical..... The other thing that I keep going back to is I have that 300lb Chambersberg steam hammer sitting in my yard.... It wont run on air the way it is, at least not a reasonable amount of air.... But if I could use something like Kens linkage to get single blows from anyplace in the stroke... well it wouldn't take lots of air..... And man then you would really have something....

What really impresses me is driving the hack.... For a small home built hammer seems to have exceptional control...

It does seem like its got enough umph to do some work although I would never do general forging under the one I build, I really am just interested in it as a tooling/treadle I think I'll build something closer to 150 lbs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O3DsNeky9F4&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL

I think Grant has pulled it of sans flux. Maybe he will speak up....

I talked to Ken on the phone today and he did say he Played with a sword style linkage but that's not what this is.... I was impressed enough I ordered one, the first he has sold ;-). Now I just have to find time to build a hammer around it....

My #8 is not a good setup. It runs the flat belt tight and slips the 3 V belts. It would be fine for constant heavy work but the idler really needs to be moved over to the flat belt side(half speed shaft on back)

I wont be changing it until I put the motor over head or do a line shaft.

I wasn't going to say anything but that was kind of my guess seeing how it was set up... I have a little giant that someone had welded the clutch together and was using a slack belt system to engage V belts through a complicated system... It lacked the finesse of the flat and wide slack belt hammers I have run

Yep,,, thanks for the pics.... Those overhead shots are pretty much what I had in mind... Anyone know about the modern thin slack belt materal? I had a little champion hammer that had a belt made out of the stuff and it was super slick.. Not sure what it was called though, It was only like a 1/8 or less thick and when it got warm it generated its own "stick"

Sadie is my shop partner... She was my son Andrews dog and she has been in the shop every day since she was a pup... I find it kind of odd that she doesn't flinch even a bit when you crash a sledge into a steel table and the Nazel puts her to sleep.. But she is scared to death of the vacuum As you can see she is a hard worker

My 3b is 225 with die and the 4b 340 with die both weighted out of the hammer

I just got home with a #9 Beaudry belt drive hammer and need to figure out a good drive configuration. I have a 1100 rpm 7.5 hp motor I plan on using but that means I need a bout a 5:1 reduction in speed. Obviously a 4" drive pulley won't offer enough belt engagement for good smooth operation so I guess it will have to have a jackshaft which I don't much care for... I have plenty of headroom to do the motor overhead which seems like it would work the best but be the biggest pain.. Care to show pictures and tips for how you set up your Beaurdy?

Glad you got them home Rick...

Let me know what you have for 250lb spares..... I know of a local shop here who has a pair of 250lb LG in production use and they very well could be interested...

Yeah as John said he will be shipping over a really nice pile of iron, Many look new... at this point I would say there are at least 8 in the 400-650 pound range? I will be able to sell you a 500-600 pound anvil that looks new for less or the same cash than you could buy a new 450 for

I am a Metal Muncher man as well.... I have owned a Edwards and a Piranha and neither where near the machine the Metal Muncher is...